1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to portable, easily assembled support structure for supporting musical instruments and the like.
2. Prior Art
When a musical group performs, they may use many thousands of pounds of instruments and other performance related gear on stage during a performance. Such performance related gear includes speakers, amplifiers, and support structures to position and contain the various instruments. The support structures are particularly useful to a drummer in a group such that it usually surrounds the drummer with his drums, cymbals, microphones, etc.
There are a variety of such support structures known in the prior art. One such support structure is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,291 issued Mar. 23, 1976 to Zickos. Zickos shows a framework for supporting a drum assembly comprising a plurality of elongated rod-like frame members whose ends are interconnected by a plurality of identical joint members. Each component of the drum assembly is supported on a rod which is in turn received within a joint member mounted intermediate the ends of one of the frame members. The construction of the joints permits the frame members to be assembled in any desired arrangement and permits universal positioning of the drum assembly. Such a system is portable, easily collapsed, and very flexible.
Another such prior art system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,462 issued July 19, 1977 to Sheftel. Sheftel's system comprises a pair of complementary collapsible members joined by a variable length spreader member. The structure is adapted to support a plurality of musical instruments. Each collapsible member comprises a central hub having a pair of pivotally coupled legs and a coupling member adapted to receive the variable length spreader member. The structure is shaped like two letter Y's bent joined together end-to-end at their bottom ends. The structure sits very low to the floor and has apertures in each branch of the structure to receive upwardly extending mounting members for mounting the musical instruments. This system is less flexible than that of Zickos but is also portable and easily collapsed.
A system of a different nature is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,096,677 issued July 9, 1963 to Ryan. Ryan provides a foldable floor mat structure with prelocated stops for determining the location of the feet of instrument stands.
Support systems are typically used by rock groups on tour to facilitate quick set-up and knock-down of the instruments and accessories. In a typical drum assembly many different types and sizes of drums and cymbals are used and a microphone is generally being used with respect to each of the instruments. In order to ensure accurate reproduction of a particular sound effect produced by a drummer, the cymbals, drums and microphones should be supported and assembled in the same relationship and location with respect to one each time they are used. The more accurately relationships and locations can be reproduced by a support system, the less time required to fine tune the instruments to find the proper "sound" of the drummer's music.
In addition to the patented prior art support systems, many drummers today still use free standing cymbals and microphones which take considerable time to properly locate so as to best reproduce a desired sound effect.
Therefore, a new and improved accessory bar support system that is lightweight, portable, easy to set up and affix instruments to would be of great advantage in the art. Further, an accessory bar system that provides reproducibility of the sound that a particular group of instruments makes would aid musicians in saving time in preliminary fine tuning of the group of instruments prior to a concert.